Expect Big Brother to keep peace

OUR VIEW:

August 11, 2004|By the Herald Times Editorial Board

Why is it always the few who spoil it for the many? Recent vandalism in Aspen Park has cost the city of Gaylord more than $20,000 in repairs, forcing city council members to explore options as extreme as closing the park altogether.

That makes another suggestion - placing cameras in strategic locations - seem mild by comparison. That is until you think about what that means.

It means a small group of individuals lacks respect for nature and public property. Unfortunately, this type of incident is not uncommon, as witnessed in a rash of vandalism reports from Vanderbilt Area School this spring.

Second, it means that the presence of increased police patrols isn't a deterrent. Those have been stepped up in increments all summer and yet Tuesday morning there was another report of vandalism. It represents a lack of respect for the law.

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The broadest implication is that Gaylord can't seem to escape the growing trend nationwide to install cameras as security devices in public places. We may not have the terrorists feared by the metropolises of New York, Boston, or Washington, D.C., but in the modern age of technology video surveillance has replaced an individual's sense of personal responsibility. If there are no cameras, what's to stop a person from getting away with what they want.

We don't want to see cameras installed in Aspen Park. The idea of them spoils the park's atmosphere more than the actual cameras would. Yet if that's what it takes, we'll groan and bear it, for now.